The Love-Hate Relationship Between OpenAI and Musk
In an email to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in November 2015, Musk wrote that the structure of OpenAI seemed less than ideal, as the goals of a nonprofit organization might not fully align with the personal interests of employees, leading to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, Musk suggested that it might be better to make OpenAI a standard C corporation while also establishing a parallel nonprofit organization.
In a conversation between OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and former board member Shivon Zilis, Brockman mentioned that he had communicated with Musk about the company's structural issues, claiming that Musk once believed the initial choice of a nonprofit structure was the right one, but it was no longer the most suitable choice.